Le dio el boleto a el. VS Le dio el boleto.

Question

Sorry, I can't use tildes on this computer.

My question is why use the first sentence Le dio el boleto a el (tilde-him)

and not just 'Le dio el boleto.'

Does the first stress the gender of the person. Would it be correct to use the second?

As always, thanks in advance. Hopefully one day I'll be the one answering, not asking questions.

Answer 1

It is not stressing the gender but rather whom he/she gave the ticket to.

Let's assume for simplicity that both the person giving the ticket and the person receiving the ticket are male. Then we have:

Le dio el boleto = He gave him the ticket.

Le dio el boleto a él. = He gave the ticket to him [and not someone else].

Answer 2

By the way...jeje, this is funny, first thought that came to mind when I saw this:

he sent him to hell

dar el boleto a alguien:

dar boleto Sig:

echar. despedir. deshacerse de alguien , dar calle

Ejemplo:

• Ese jugador es muy malo, así que se rumorea que le van a dar boleto.

• Se rumorea que Javi le va a dar boleto a su novia.

Answer 3

Besides emphasizing the recipient, the clarifying prepositional phrase can be added just to explain who the ambiguous le refers to.

If in the previous conversation you had been discussing both a him and her adding the clarifying prepositional phrase simply tells you the the le refers to him; not to her. The le can refer to him, to her, to Bob, to Mary, to el señor Smith, el tío Juan, etc.. The prepositional phrase is used when you wish to be explicit about who the le is; and not leave it as implied by the previous conversation.